Miracles
by Jennie
Summary: Linda finally gets her miracle. Linda/Leander. Set during Second Sister in Wizard Heir.


**Title:** Miracles

**Series Title:** Repetition

**Author: ** Jennie

**Fandom:** Heir Series

**Characters:** Linda/Leander, Leicester

**Rating:** PG

**Prompt:** 4. blessing

**Summary:** Linda receives her miracle.

**Disclaimer:** The characters are not mine. I am merely borrowing them and do not intend on making any profits.

**AN: **Written for the Live Journal community: **5_times**: five times Linda told Leander that she loved him. I don't know _why_ this pairing has me so obsessed – their entire family, actually – but it does. These are written in reverse order because that's the way they came to me. This takes place at Second Sister, during _Wizard Heir_. Any comments or constructive criticism are appreciated. And if you want to make me _really_ happy, write Heir Series fic.

* * *

The world stopped for a moment. She could hear the wind around her, smell the sulfur of the fire, taste the magic in the air. But all of it didn't matter anymore. She was frozen. She was numb. She was alone.

Dropping onto her knees, she drew his head into her lap. _He is gone_, her mind repeated unending. _He is dead and he isn't coming back. You had a chance to be happy and now it's gone_. She stroked a hand through his hair, smoothing the soft curls. His face was relaxed and he looked innocent and peaceful, giving no hint of his inner fierceness. She hesitated before brushing the unruly strands out of his eyes, her hand shaking. Her heart pounded in her chest and she was aware of nothing besides him.

The room was going to pieces around her. It was luck, plain and simple, that kept her from getting injured. Her son was gone, by his Lee's own hand, and now she had lost him as well. _What was left_, her mind wondered. Leicester had won. It _hurt_ her to say it, to admit it to herself. But there was little hope left. Seph was dead. Lee was dead. She was next.

She hadn't been a very religious person the last decades. While she had been raised Catholic, thanks to her mother – a very devout woman – she had battled with the revelation that she was magical, and then, when her fears were assuaged, she didn't have the time to _worry_ anymore. She had a rebellion to run, lives to save, a son to keep tabs on. She remembered attending services as a child, the way the entire family got dressed up in their Sunday finery, and what a _family_ event it had been.

Linda didn't have a family anymore. She had given them up. She didn't deserve them. So she threw herself into the battle against the wizards instead, and had closed that chapter of her life. Did she believe that there was a God? Yes. Did she believe that He was going to actually help them in their struggle against the Wizards? No.

She had to take manners into her own hands.

But now, faced with her death, faced with the death of her loved ones, she started to wonder again. She could really do with a miracle. She didn't even mind dying herself, if only because both her son and her…Lee was dead. But she didn't want her death to be in vain. She wanted her death to mean something. She closed her eyes and reopened them, concentrating on the man in her embrace. She stroked Lee's forehead, smoothing his hair back.

"I love you," she whispered tears pooling in her eyes. She moved her hand down, gently grazing over his eyes before cupping his cheek. "Wait for me," she murmured silently, the words forming on her lips, but never actually voiced. She moved her thumb across his cheek, smearing the blood, before tracing his lips.

She froze.

Breath. Or maybe – no, it had to be breath. His cheek was still warm to her touch and the breath – but how could he have survived? Leicester had said that his stone had been disabled. And Leicester wouldn't take a chance with him, not after all that Lee had done to mess with his plans. But the air she felt pass through his lips was unmistakable.

Her heart gave a flutter, and she wanted to lean down, to make sure, to feel if his heart was still beating, if he had somehow managed to survive – if some miracle had actually happened. But before she could, she was ripped away from him, strong arms circling her and dragging her to stand, one hand on her throat.

She wanted to kick out. She wanted to protest. The numbness within her soon disappeared and was taken over by a raging fire, an urge to save her…an urge to save Lee. She was being taken away from him. She couldn't leave him! She had to stay by him, she had to save him, she had to make sure that he was alive and it wasn't just some, some _illusion_ that he was alive, some side effect to the magic permeating the air.

Then Leicester spoke and she learned of her second miracle.

Her son was alive.

Both of her loved ones were alive, and it made her love Lee even more. Somehow, against all odds, he had managed to pull off another one of his harebrained schemes and had saved their son. This time, instead of wanting to argue with him about the consequences of messing with other people's lives, about how he was going to get killed (and the thought sent a shudder through her as she realized how _close_ they were to having that horrible prediction come true), she was merely relieved. He had saved Seph. He had saved their son and she was forever in his debt because of that.

_I love you_, she thought with as much force as she could, hoping that he could, somehow, read her mind. _Just hang on_, she sent towards him, _we'll get out of this somehow_.

_I love you_.


End file.
